I know it's all relative, but given the changes earlier this year, I wouldn't say it was "easy" to reach Silver for most people.

We're different here on FT.

It's easy just expensive - I did a return this year that got me 28k tier miles.

Agree, it's expensive. DXB is just a holiday destination for me so I manage to do 2-3 trips a year.

Any tips on getting lots of tier miles for lowest cost? I've never really looked into getting a decent status on EK.

Here's a data point, I flew on an Economy Flex ticket LHR-DXB-LHR a few weeks ago on EK.

I've just checked my account and I only got 2,100 tier points each way (4,200 in total). My ticket cost nearly 700GBP. So, it would take many 700GBP flights just to retain Silver.

EK's mileage changes have pretty much aligned the tier levels with corresponding dollar amounts of revenue - so really it's going to be a question of time in the air and cash. In terms of "convenience", you're looking at a long-haul F trip to say, NZ for best value.

Yes or if you want silver you can get f to Asia for a little over £3k sometimes

rumbataz : some useful comments & thoughts there from others (and yes, I take your point ft101) but you might also want to ask yourself whether acquiring status really is more 'important' to you than where you travel, and how much you spend on tickets and ancillary costs. By which I mean ..... there's a danger of tailoring travel plans & budgets based on tiers & miles etc - rather than just following your instincts and normal travel/spending patterns.

If the status comes in the natural course of events, then obviously that's great. But travelling purely to get it is another thing entirely - albeit a very popular pastime, understandably, here on FT ........;)

Plus, worth remembering that acquiring status is one thing ; maintaining it can be costly.

I've added a Jordan flight to get plat. Won't be aiming to retain next year way too much flying this year.

Oh sure, m3red, your Jordan mileage run (if that's indeed what it is) sounds fine to me, and is the sort of thing I would quite likely do myself in similar circumstances (ie if already handily based DXB etc).

The wider point I was making earlier is that it might be counter-productive for someone to take a single 'blow-the-budget' flight, say to Asia in F as you suggested, just to get themselves to Silver when in truth they might be happier spending that same cash on several holiday trips to Dubai in Y. And of course I think you would agree that there is little merit in pushing the boat out 'purely' to get status IF then you can't actually make use of it in the subsequent year !

But I don't mean to make any presumptions about rumbataz's budget, or anyone else's. In the end it all comes down to personal priorities, as ever.

It's a mileage run for me and the wife - gets us both plat plus we get a 2 night break at the Dead Sea.

She now wants to come back early to go to Ellie Golding - so swapping suites for the a330 - first world problems!

If your main travel pattern is going to be just LHR-DXB, then the cheapest saver fare can be around 400 to 500 GBP, and this is almost 200 GBP less than a flex Y ticket.

Just do a math on your own, and see whether the extra 12 kilos and the lounge access/priority check-in is really needed every time you travel.

Travelling Y and maintaining silver on this route could be very challenging..!

That's pretty much what I meant.

The PER mistake fare would have been nice if it had come good. I think it was over 22,500 in J for the round trip.

Did that not get honoured?

Ba honoured their one albeit that it was direct on ba.com

I think re Perth with EK, all we have seen so far are reports of cancelled tickets, but that's not to say that they were ALL cancelled.

As for BA ....which one are you referring to ...? I snapped up (purely on impulse !) a J class return to NYC for a little less than the normal cost of a Y seat. Waited before booking hotels + positioning flights etc, but eventually received email confirmation from BA that they would allow all travel as ticketed.

No, the first world problem is deciding who to give your Gold nomination cards to ;)